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My name is Randy Simmons and I am a Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) Support Engineer specializing in the Requirements and Quality Management Tool. I was tasked to create a Video Series to give internal IBMer’s and external customers a basic understanding and troubleshooting options to use when Java related problems occur using the CLM suite of Tools.

This “Non-Programmer's Guide to Troubleshooting Java in CLM” video series covers the topics below. It will make you more aware of the Java Tools available for download at IBM DeveloperWorks. It give you some background about how Java and JVMs work, what data Rational Support is looking for, and the understanding of how you would go about troubleshooting Java or Performance related issues.

Click through the titles to watch the four videos, or click play on the embedded playlist at the end:

1. Introduction to Java for CLM: This video is a recording from an education session "Non-Programmer's Guide to Troubleshooting Java in CLM". This video provides an introduction to Java for IBM Rational Collaboration Lifecycle Management V5.0 users.

1995, November 14: SQA, Inc. files a US federal trademark for SQA Robot as part of the SQA Suite in Woburn Massachusetts (MA) 01801.

1997, February 26: Rational Software Corp. acquires SQA, Inc.

SQA Robot is part of SQA TeamTest . This bundle consists of SQA Robot and SQA Tester.

As the years go passing by

1999, February: the first release under the name of Rational Robot v.7.1 comes out.

2002: Robot wins the Yphise award for the best functional testing tool.
Yphise is a leading independent analyst company from Paris, France. Yphise assessed Robot through Yphise's ISO-9001-certified methodology.

2003, February: IBM acquisition of Rational Software.

The name changes from Rational Robot to IBM Rational Robot.

2004 Robot development moves from Lexington MA to Bangalore, India. From that time until today, Hari Ananth has been the core developer.

IBM Rational Robot Version 7.0.3.4 introduced the OpenComparator function in stand-alone mode. This version also introduced support for 64-bit operating system and made the step into the 64-bit world possible after the end of life of Windows XP. See The rebirth of Rational Robot after XP's death

Thanks to Hari, this was all possible.

Robot and her husbands

In the days before Rational Software renamed SQA Robot to Rational Robot, SQA Manager was the tool to organize Robot scripts. After that, Rational Software renamed to Rational Robot and Rational TestManager.

Release 7.0.0.1 was the first release where you could work in stand-alone mode, freed from Rational TestManager. Only for performance testing, you need to integrate with TestManager.

From 6 June 2006 until 30 April 2013, the integration with Rational ClearQuest Test Manager (CQTM) was supported. The newest tool IBM Rational Quality Manager has integrated with Rational Robot since 19 December 2008.

I hope you've got an impression how Robot developed in the 22 years of its life. If you'd like to discuss this further or add information, leave a comment here or connect with me on Twitter @GunangWaney.

Consciously or unconsciously, we see history lightly in the form of a conflict between the old and the new.- Johan Huizinga.

Robot has been out for more than 15 years. Since that time the software world has been changing rapidly and still is developing at breakneck speed. For many present-day applications, Robot is no longer the right tool. For example, Robot is a 32-bit tool. As such, Robot cannot work with 64-bit applications.

The newer Rational testing tool for functional testing, IBM Rational Functional Tester (RFT), has started to support 64-bit applications. However, a supported automated migration has been unavailable until now. Maybe the tips of my colleague Andreas Franke are helpful in his white paper.Testing Using Rational Robot versus Rational Functional Tester.

For the performance testing part, the VU scripting, the last Robot version is 7.0.2.2. Rational Performance Tester (RPT) would be a possible replacement.

As time went, some of their applications became obsolete and new applications went life. When the Tivoli tool started to support RFT and RPT, they took the opportunity to develop their new monitoring scripts in RFT and RPT. Whenever an application goes life, the team developed RFT or RPT script. Now RFT and RPT tests monitor most of their applications. Only a few are still under Robot, but in due course the company will withdraw these applications. Are they ready for 30 April 2016? I think they are.

Next: don't shoot the messenger

Therefore I think that a gradual switch over to RFT and RPT would be the best option I can think of. When you decommission an application that you have tested with Robot, you can replace Robot with RFT or RPT for the replacement. The same might apply when you make far-reaching changes to your applications.

Hopefully this post helps you to think about the future of your testing activities. If you'd like to discuss this further, leave a comment here or connect with me on Twitter @GunangWaney. You can also open a service request against IBM support, preferably before 30 April 2016.

Assess the Impact of a Change- Scott McBride, Senior Managing Consultant with IBM demonstrates how you can link a business service to supporting processes, applications and technology components. Knowing these dependencies will enable you to identify which business activities may be affected by a change in the supporting technologies.

It''s becoming more and more common for secure websites to use stronger encryption. That's fine but when recording SSL traffic with Rational Performance Tester that stronger encryption level can prevent RPT from recording traffic from that site.